Electronic medical records (EMRs) have been growing in use by physicians nationwide and are seen as a valuable tool to patient care, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t drawbacks.
EMRs, also known as electronic health records (EHRs), are computerized versions of traditional, patient-specific paper records kept by physicians or hospitals that document personal information, medical procedures, results, observations and treatment plans that make up a person’s medical history.
Scott Wallace, who teaches Health Information Technology at the Audrey and Theodor Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, experienced one benefit of EMRs first hand in 1998 when his father suffered a massive stroke. Because his father was between insurance plans at the time, Wallace managed his care. At one point, there were 23 doctors writing prescriptions for his father and he ended up in the intensive care unit from adverse drug reactions five times.
Wallace eventually moved his father from an Ohio hospital to a Houston veterans hospital that used electronic health records. After the move, his father never suffered another adverse drug “No one could issue prescriptions that didn’t go through a checker,” Wallace said. “When they work right, these systems are phenomenal.”
Date: January 13, 2015
